“It is misleading to suggest that Dr. Kowalske or UT Southwestern is the focus of the allegations referred to in the article,” says the letter, which was published today in The Dallas Morning News. But as you can see in the red box here, she is the lead individual defendant in the case. (And our story did not suggest that UTSW was the focus of anything, although we noted that all individual defendants are current or former UTSW faculty members. Click on the second link above.)

She “issued an executive directive for residents and fellows [doctors in UTSW training programs] to see all potential patients as early as possible during their Parkland inpatient stay, including while in the ICU.” This “placed many medically unstable patients in jeopardy for further injury and serious harm.”

The directive’s purpose, according to the lawsuit, was to have the trainees “systematically be able to record on Parkland medical forms that a rehab consult was performed.” The forms “would be used as support to cause false billings” to Medicare and other federal insurance programs.

None of the defendants have responded publicly to the lawsuit’s allegations. And last week, UTSW’s spokesman did not respond when asked whether Kowalske’s departure was related to settlement negotiations.

Dr. Daniel Podolsky

Yet today’s letter says: “The newspaper was informed of the facts before publication, but decided to publish a sensationalized and misleading article. Why the change in an academic department chair should be newsworthy is a mystery to us.”